Electric cars are subsidised by the state, e-bikes are not. The bicycle lobby thinks this is unfair, as does the Federal Council - they argue that an opportunity for a transport revolution is being wasted. The government disagrees.
Read the article from 2 September 2016 on SPIEGEL ONLINE „Purchase premium for e-bikes: "Pedalling aid from the Federal Council"
The member states of the United Nations want to agree on a new urban agenda as part of the Habitat III conference in Quito. This "New Urban Agenda" is intended to serve as a political guideline for urban development over the next two decades. Federal Building Minister Barbara Hendricks takes part in the official opening of the Habitat III conference together with Friedrich Kitschelt, State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Hendricks: "All over the world, people are moving to cities. Cities therefore hold the key to a sustainable and climate-friendly world. It is important to invest in the right infrastructure today. Cities need support for this. They must be put in a position to fulfil the demands of their inhabitants for decent housing, access to energy, clean water or sewage and waste disposal, but also for education and participation. This is what I will be campaigning for in Quito."
Half of the world's population already lives in cities today. By 2050, this figure is expected to rise to two thirds. Around 90 per cent of this growth is taking place in developing and emerging countries. At the same time, cities are responsible for around 70 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Habitat III is a UN process that addresses the development of cities around the world against the backdrop of urbanisation and places it in the context of the global sustainability goals of the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Climate Agreement. The "New Urban Agenda", which is to be adopted in Quito, will provide governments, cities and local and regional actors with a globally applicable framework for action for the sustainable development of cities.
The Federal Government is committed to ensuring that cities are recognised as development actors in an integrated urban development policy. Only if cities and regions are strong and have a say in their urban development concerns can they offer a high quality of life for their citizens and enable democratic participation. In the negotiations at Habitat III, Germany will contribute its experience with the principle of subsidiarity, local self-government with the provision of adequate financial resources, urban development and housing promotion and the model of the compact European city.
The World Conference of Cities takes place every twenty years. Habitat III follows on thematically from the two previous conferences in Vancouver (1976) and Istanbul (1996). Around 30,000 participants from 180 countries are expected to attend the conference in Quito, including delegates from governments, academia and civil society organisations. On the third day, Federal Building Minister Hendricks will be travelling on to Costa Rica. State Secretary for Construction Gunther Ad-ler will accompany the German delegation together with State Secretary for Development Kitschelt until the end of the conference on 20 October.
Source: BMUB press release, 12 October 2016
Keywords:
DE-News, Communities, Media, New books and studies, News Blog Europe (without DE), Quarters, SDG 2030, Settlements, City, UN (United Nations), Environmental policy, Housing policy
The exhibition marking the halfway point of the IBA Heidelberg has opened: A rich accompanying programme attracted almost 1000 visitors from Thursday to Saturday, many of whom were visiting the exhibition venue, the Mark Twain Center in Heidelberg's Südstadt, for the first time.
The IBA SUMMIT, the biennial meeting of mayors, university rectors and urban planners from international "Knowledge Pearls" in Heidelberg, heralded the opening days of the IBA interim presentation on 26 April. Prof. Dr Eckart Würzner, Lord Mayor of the City of Heidelberg welcomed the guests from Stanford, Cambridge, Lund and Leuven with an introduction to the IBA: "The IBA Heidelberg is on an excellent path. It demonstrates how various strengths of our city can be interwoven. These include, for example, promoting education, developing environmentally friendly mobility, creating new living space and promoting climate-neutral urban development. The IBA has made a significant contribution to the sense of a new beginning in Heidelberg.
The vernissage of the exhibition took place at the Mark Twain Center on the evening of 27 April. Gunther Adler, State Secretary for Building, Housing and Urban Development in the Federal Ministry of the Interior spoke on the occasion about the "IBA" format from the federal government's point of view. According to Adler, the IBA is an important piece of German building culture that enjoys international renown and is worth every effort to pursue its claim to excellence. The IBA tradition encompasses many aspects: International relevance, next-practice projects, sustainable impact on the region and building culture standards. For the IBAs currently underway, it is sometimes difficult to fully meet these claims to excellence under the given framework conditions. "Nevertheless, we are seeing overwhelming results, which encourage us as a federal government to continue the quality offensive together - also within the framework of the IBA Heidelberg," the State Secretary emphasised. "We need the IBA to show us how we can find answers to relevant questions of current urban development using new and unusual methods and means - this is more urgent today than ever. The IBA's courage to experiment and to go beyond existing boundaries is important to address the quality of living, working and living in our cities in the future."
Jürgen Odszuck, First Mayor of the City of HeidelbergThe IBA's interim presentation provides an excellent overview of what it is doing in Heidelberg: it gives important new impulses on how we can further develop Heidelberg as the knowledge city of tomorrow. It promotes excellent building projects in our city. And it offers innovative approaches on how we can design processes more effectively and lead to even better results."
Michael Braum, Managing Director of the IBA Heidelberg, was pleased about the great response to the exhibition opening and welcomed the guests: "Innovation in the knowledge society uses its intellectual and creative resources. This changes the value system of the industrial society, in which diligence stood above creativity. Today, in the knowledge society, creativity may be more important than diligence. This also has implications for the city. Our cities will change more dynamically in the 21st century than they did in the course of industrialisation. This requires a new way of thinking in urban planning and architecture. The IBA would like to make a contribution to this, which can now be seen in this exhibition."
Carl Zillich, Curatorial Director of the IBA Heidelbergexplained the exhibition concept: "Before we present realised building projects for the knowledge city of tomorrow in 2022, we have focused at the halfway point on the actors, processes and ideas of the first five years. Together with the exhibition makers from 'Stiftung Freizeit', we have developed analogue and at the same time interactive forms of presentation. Thus, for different interests, individual glimpses behind the scenes of the IBA, the urban development of international science cities, but also Heidelberg institutions and initiatives are on offer. Numerous architectural models, pictures and plans have already aroused curiosity about the construction sites, which are now marked all over the city."
The opening days closed on Saturday, 28 April with a colourful programme, during which many young families in particular got an impression of the exhibition and the IBA projects.
The exhibition of the IBA interim presentation is now open until 8 July daily from Tuesdays to Sundays from 15.00 - 20.00, including public holidays.
More information about the exhibition, guided tours, registration or booking of individual group tours at:
www.iba.heidelberg.de
Keywords:
News Blog Baden-Württemberg
The funding concept is supported within the framework of the National Climate Initiative (NKI, www.klimaschutz.de) of the Federal Ministry for the Environment. The funding would be a strategic expansion of the NKI's range of services by also supporting local initiatives with their ideas for direct citizen participation in the future.
Keywords:
DE-News, Renewable, Funding, Climate protection, Resource efficiency, Sufficiency, Transition Town
200 years ago, Karl Freiherr von Drais built the first bicycle - an invention with far-reaching consequences. A song of praise for the smartest means of transport.
Read article in the Süddeutsche Zeitung from 13.11.2016
Keywords:
Bike-/Velo-City, DE-News, Climate protection, Mobility, Transition Town, Ecology
